Bacterial Evolution
Bacterial Evolution
In the late 19th century, diseases led researchers to find treatments to kill the growth of microbes. The outcome of the search was a new kind of medicine which is known as antibiotics. Antibiotics is a variety of substances that control the growth or kill bacteria. Since bacteria is evolving rapidly and resisting antibiotics due to the overuse of the medicine, reducing the need and use would help slow down the bacteria from evolving. There are many things that can be done to help slow down the resistance of antibiotics. If the trend of this resistance keeps growing antibiotics wont be able to help the human body from a bacterial infection. For over 70 years antibiotics have been used to treat people with infectious diseases. Penicillin was the first type of antibiotic known to man. It was developed by Alexander Fleming in 1928 to fight bacterial infections. When Fleming took a two week vacation, a culture plate of Staphylococcus bacteria from an experiment was left and became contaminated with Penicillium Notatum mold. When Fleming discovered the culture plate, he noticed that surrounding the mold was a distinct clear halo. Fleming assumed that Penicillium was able to inhibit bacterial growth. With this accidental development Fleming was given the Noble Prize in 1945 for his achievements(***). An Oxford University research team took 11 years after Flemings discovery to isolate and purify penicillin in order for it to be used. Finally in 1940 mice were injected with a lethal dose of Streptococcus and cured with penicillin to test the antibiotic. After successfully experimenting with mice, testing with patients began immediately. Penicillin quickly became the main treatment of bacterial infections like syphilis, gangrene, and tuberculosis. If it wasn’t for Flemings accidental experiment antibiotics might have taken longer to be developed or might even be nonexistent. In order to understand the problem that is antibiotic resistance it
In the late 19th century, diseases led researchers to find treatments to kill the growth of microbes. The outcome of the search was a new kind of medicine which is known as antibiotics. Antibiotics is a variety of substances that control the growth or kill bacteria. Since bacteria is evolving rapidly and resisting antibiotics due to the overuse of the medicine, reducing the need and use would help slow down the bacteria from evolving. There are many things that can be done to help slow down the resistance of antibiotics. If the trend of this resistance keeps growing antibiotics wont be able to help the human body from a bacterial infection. For over 70 years antibiotics have been used to treat people with infectious diseases. Penicillin was the first type of antibiotic known to man. It was developed by Alexander Fleming in 1928 to fight bacterial infections. When Fleming took a two week vacation, a culture plate of Staphylococcus bacteria from an experiment was left and became contaminated with Penicillium Notatum mold. When Fleming discovered the culture plate, he noticed that surrounding the mold was a distinct clear halo. Fleming assumed that Penicillium was able to inhibit bacterial growth. With this accidental development Fleming was given the Noble Prize in 1945 for his achievements(***). An Oxford University research team took 11 years after Flemings discovery to isolate and purify penicillin in order for it to be used. Finally in 1940 mice were injected with a lethal dose of Streptococcus and cured with penicillin to test the antibiotic. After successfully experimenting with mice, testing with patients began immediately. Penicillin quickly became the main treatment of bacterial infections like syphilis, gangrene, and tuberculosis. If it wasn’t for Flemings accidental experiment antibiotics might have taken longer to be developed or might even be nonexistent. In order to understand the problem that is antibiotic resistance it